The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-05-19
A NIGHTS LODGING.
WHERE THE TRAMP AND BUM ERE
SENT FOR BALMY SLEEP.

Lodging House for the Homeless
Wrecks W!icn Float Upon the Com
munity-The "Dossing Ken"-The Five
Cent LoGgers--Sleepins VaGabOndage.
Sergeant, kin We give me ticket fer
nights lodGingi'
when did you strike town.
about an hour ago
"And You amt no professional! OF course
not"
Il got my foot hurt about a month ago and
it laid me up for couple Of weeks so 1t
leaves me q little short; but I'll set work to-
morrow
We'll, you'd better. There's very severe
vagrant law in this state, and if you come
here again up you go to the work house."
The above scene, with only slight variations,
is enacted from ten 20 fifty times every night
at the Central police station, the finale being
the exit of the applicant with blue ticket
emitting him to five cent lodging on East
larned street. To the gentle minded reader
the manner and language of Sergt Martin
may seem a trihe severe; but experience
proves that IN nine-tenths of the cases it is
fully justified. Almost without exception
these applicants for the city's charity conf
plain of some visitation of Providence i'll the
way of accident or sickness, when in truth it
is visitation in the way Of their own vicious
appetites for drink that has bereft them of
means and left them mere wrecks upon the
community, floating hither and thither, a
burden to themselvos-homeleSs and friend
less.
THE "DossING KEN"
And what of the lodgings to which they gol
If one-half the world knows not how the other
half lives, large part of the world-com-
posed Of those who retire upon wholesome
beds in pleasant rooms and with comfortable
garments-can have but vague Flea of what
a tramp's lodging house is like. In summer
large number of the vagrart class select
some deserted house or shed for their lodging
place, where no light shines and no eye
watches over them. Into such place no olG
enters unless he be under the influence CT
drink or in a condition of all to gain ard
nothing to lose. And the tenure of such re-
sorts is very brief for hardly does the place
become u habitual "doSsing KEN" as the
| tramps have it, before some serious breach of
the peace occurs to invite its destruction by
the police. But nothing of the sort occurs at
the place on East Larned street. The pro-
prietor, Mr.. Corners, is man of iron nerve
and understands the class with whom he deals
most thoroughly.
By his courtesy we will enter and look the
place over The first floor is devoted wholly
to the management and domestic carrying on
of the lodging house. On the second and
third floors are small rooms partitioned off
with common planed boards and provided
with plain sleeping pallets. These rooms are
ten and fifteen cents night, according to the
| conveniences they contain, and one may hang
up his watch on the wall and be sure of find
ing it in the morning. Water, towel and
soap are provided and there are no rats.
Should any guest claim that he has been an
noyed by rats during the night he is advised
to sign the pledge and try and brace up.
THE FIVE CENT LoDGERs.
The fourth floor, a large room some 90x150
feet, is devoted TO the five cent dodgers There
are tiers of hunks built around the sides of
the room, four deep, and two four tier rows
of hunks run through the center of the room.
These hunks are not spacious, but fit man
like his coffin" Two hundred men can be
lodged here, and it is sigular fact that dur
| ing half the nights of the year every bunk is
occupied. Most of the dodgers remove their
boots or shoes, but sleep III their clothing, and
the atmosphere, favored as it is with the spir-
| ituous breaths of many of the sleepers, is not
without its sanitary peculiarities. The color
| line is not drawn on the fourth floor, and the
| cleaning white flesh of the Caucasian nestles
cozily beside the ebony arms of the swarthy
/ Senegambian. The warmth of the room in
| summer becomes excessive and clothing be-
comes a secondary consideration to comfort.
! Begging, like sorrow, knows no seasons
! "the morning. noon and night with hers the
/ same"-and for twentyfour hours in each
day the watchful eye of an attendant ranges
along the tiers of hunks and no movement of
the lodger escapes it. What stertorious breath
| ing and dismal snores resound from this mass
! of sleeping vagabondage can only be i'm
agined. What wild gibberish is talked in
| sleep; what starts and cries from the vista
ton of nightmares and what savage oaths
| from the parched and burning threats of the
| poor victims of rum, who have gone to sleep
with quiescent nerves, to wake with a burn
| ing thirst-their stomachs pefect lime kiln
must also be left to the imagination; no pen
could approach its description. Free
! Press.